


Suspension of Disbelief

by EvilMuffins



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro Lives, Birthday Fluff, Established Relationship, Forehead Kisses, Light Angst, M/M, Mention of Past Abuse, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-10 22:02:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13510665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilMuffins/pseuds/EvilMuffins
Summary: To think that only a year ago, Akechi had found Yusuke’s smile to be smug and pretentious, causing a turbulent jealousy to brew whenever he had spent time with the group. Now that Akechi had long since ceased projecting onto his former teammate, the expression stirred something much warmer in his chest.---Akechi celebrates his boyfriend's birthday as best he can.





	Suspension of Disbelief

**Author's Note:**

> Hap birth to the goodest boy!
> 
> Thanks to Joy and Chico for helping me out with prompts <3
> 
> This turned out more Akechi-centric but oh well. I rushed to get this out on time (it's still the 28th in NY!), so there are probaaaaably typos.

“But…Why should I be the one to receive a present, if we are commemorating your recovery today?” Yusuke asked as he turned the small box over in his hands, perplexed, as if he had just been handed a live lobster, which, now that Akechi thought about it, Yusuke might have actually preferred.

“It’s your birthday today, isn’t it?” Akechi replied, the feeling of the corners of his lips tugging into a smile- one that was meant for someone other than a TV audience-  was still novel to him. Although he had been growing more accustomed to it each day ever since waking up in the hospital one year ago. “People generally get the people they care about gifts for their birthdays…unless the head injury was worse than I thought and I’ve completely lost it... I mean, more than I already have.”

“Yes, you are correct, but there was truly no need for this. Seeing you prepare to be discharged is truly present enough.” Yusuke gestured toward the edge of the hospital bed where Akechi sat dressed in a button up shirt, rather than the hospital gown of their previous visit.

It was hard to believe that while as a child, a trip to hospital only seemed to serve as further punishment after his foster mother had smacked the back-talk out of him. He had first learned how to tell a convincing lie in one of these places, to fib to the doctors that everything was okay at home, how to fake a smile.  Yet now, after being walled up in a hospital room for months on end, Akechi thought that he might now be the happiest he’d ever been, all thanks to the stubbornness of the one person he had ever found himself wanting to be truthful with.

Akechi shook his head. “You’re not celebrating with the others until Kurusu comes back to visit next week, right?” Yusuke nodded. “So let me do something for you now, on the actual day of.”

“Ake-“ Yusuke corrected himself fondly, “Goro, I’m certain that they would not be opposed if you wished to stop by the café that day as well.”

Akechi snorted a laugh. “They pity me, Yusuke.”

“I did too once, need I remind you.”

“True, but they weren’t the ones to come here and check on me every single week,” Akechi pointed out.

Yusuke frowned. “They are all quite busy, as you well know- Ryuji as assistant to the new coach, Makoto with her police training, Haru and her café plans, Futaba starting at Kousei-“

“And you’re not?” Akechi asked pointedly.

Yusuke’s eyes traveled downward toward the sketchbook resting in his lap, filled with page after page of the hospital’s courtyard rose garden. “I believe it is known as multi-tasking.”

After first having learned that the reports of Akechi's death had been greatly exaggerated, the entirety of the group formerly known as the Phantom Thieves- save for their leader, far away in some country-side Hicksville called Inaba- had shown up to see him.

He had turned them all away.

Yet each and every Sunday, Yusuke had returned. Akechi could see him from his window over-looking the indoor courtyard, drawing for hours, until one such afternoon, when Akechi had decided that the time had finally come for some fresh air.

Akechi smiled pleasantly (it wasn’t as if he had forgotten how- he was still Akechi Goro, after all). “If you don’t open the present soon, I’ll press the buzzer and let the nurses know that I’m having a sudden and terrible relapse.”

Yusuke sighed, resigning himself to opening the present, working slender fingers underneath the tape with excruciating precision, careful not to rip the paper, although it had only been cut and folded from that morning’s newspaper.

Opening the box to reveal the sheet of paper inside, Yusuke carefully flipped it over.

To think that only a year ago, Akechi had found Yusuke’s smile to be smug and pretentious, causing a turbulent jealousy to brew whenever he had spent time with the group. Now that Akechi had long since ceased projecting onto his former teammate, the expression stirred something much warmer in his chest.

“It’s… Is this meant to represent me?” Yusuke asked softly, tracing his fingers over the image of a fox sleeping nestled among a bed of roses, as if he could actually feel the fur on the page.

“It’s not like there was much else to do while I was locked up in here.” Akechi shrugged. “There’s also this,” he said, pulling a box of Calbee out from under his pillow and presenting it to Yusuke. “It’s just from the vending machine, so it’s only a tiny one I’m afraid.”

Akechi was pleased to see the twinkle in Yusuke’s eye as he immediately pulled back the lid, jamming a stick unceremoniously into his mouth. His crappy doodle had hardly been enough of a proper gift...not that stale vending machine fare was much better. For someone who had grown up under a constant compulsion to be the best at everything, drawing had never quite been one of his strong suits, although his lack of skill had sometimes gained him a few laughs during variety shows.

“It’s wonderful,” Yusuke said once he had finished chewing, face glowing with earnestness. “Thank you. This has certainly been a most memorable birthday.”

Damn him for being so easy to please.

“However,” Yusuke continued, brow creasing, “I’m afraid that even after we have been seeing each other for months, I am ashamed to say that I still do not know when your own birthday might be.”

It was adorable, really. Yusuke could have easily looked his birthday up on his blog, or any number of fan sites. Meeting someone who liked _him,_ rather than the shell they saw on TV really was something incredible, especially considering as Yusuke had bore first-hand witness to some of the terrible things he had done.

He didn’t deserve this. Akechi didn’t deserve Yusuke, nor Yusuke him.

Akechi had changed so much, yet he still clung to his own selfishness as a white canvas held tight to whatever paint that stained it.

“ _Don’t worry about it…”_

Leaning to where Yusuke sat in the visitor’s chair across from him, Akechi brushed back that one stray blue hair that was always falling forward, having grown even longer in the past year. Kissing his forehead, Akechi murmuring his words onto warm skin. Yusuke was real and here, rather than the figment of some cognitive hell.

Any day that brought Akechi Goro into the world, was not a day for celebration.

“ _Happy birthday, Yusuke.”_

Yusuke’s, however, was an entirely different matter.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Couldn't fit it into the story, but they go out for a nice dinner as soon as Akechi's done being discharged <3
> 
> Comments appreciated!
> 
> (to anyone following my Akekita works, I swear I haven't dropped Aesopica. I just need to wait until I have time to make the ending the best it can be)


End file.
